Hey There Delilah
by Minedragon
Summary: A backstory for a D&D character for a fallout inspired campaign, backstories for multiple characters but made as it's own story


**Writing this one on a whim like many other stories. For music, play Happier by Marshmello ft. Bastille in the beginning, Phoenix by Fallout boy when Nate reaches The museum of Freedom**

Through cold glass and steel, a scene plays before a man, the struggle of a man and mother over a child. People in strange hazmat suits surrounding them, watching expectantly. The struggle ended with the woman pulling the child back, the man; middle aged, balding, shouts threats at the woman, all the while a man locked in a frozen tube, like a popsicle, watches in horror while banging on the cold glass to be released. The elderly man pulls a gun out, a snub-nosed .44 magnum, and cocks the gun before making one last threat.

A gunshot rings out. The banging on the glass of a cold, reinforced tube ceases, as the tube freezes once more, the elderly man outside watching it's occupant, with great interest. The world goes cold and frosty white for Nate, as he falls unconscious once more…

**???**

_The blood won't stop… it just won't stop_, A small girl wearing rags and a hood was huddled over a bleeding man, several gunshot wounds in his chest. "Deli…" the man trembling underneath her spoke. The girl visibly shakes as she cries above him. "I'll be fine, please…" the girl wouldn't move. "Deli…" the man fell unconscious beneath her. She wept, but the sound of footfall behind her made her freeze. "Stupid old man, all I wanted was his caps." The sound of boots stopped behind the girl, only a foot or two away, "Now…" the sound of a gun being cocked resounded from behind her, she slowly and shakily looked behind her to see a raider with a 10mm pistol aimed at her face. "Where's. The. Caps?" From outside the shack, screams of fear and pain, as well as gunshots could be heard.

The entrance to the vault opened, revealing a man out of time. Nate didn't want to come back to the vault, but there was a weapon called a Cryolator inside. "I'll come back for you later." He simply said, and while the idea of leaving his wife as a bloodied popsicle sickened him, he had other things on his mind. Namely, finding their son, and exploring what the world had to offer, however much time had passed, there had to be some civilization, right? Nate walked down the road from the vault, flashbacks of his run to the vault fresh in his mind, as if it were only an hour ago. The ruined houses of Sanctuary were the first thing Nate noticed, rust covering most with holes in their walls, others completely collapsed. As far as landscape went, most plants looked dead or dying, hardly a blade or two of green grass.

Upon entering the run-down neighbourhood, the sight of Nate's pre-war robot butler, Codsworth, was one for sore eyes. "Codsworth?" "As… As I live and breathe!" _You don't_ Nate thought sarcastically. "It's… it's really you!" It was surprising to Nate, the fact that Codsworth had stayed at his home, and survived a nuclear blast. "Things will be so much better when the missus and young Sean come back… Speaking of, do you happen to know where they are?" "..." The memory of his wife's death was fresh in his mind. "Nora is… gone." "Oh, I'm so very sorry for your loss, sir, but what of young Sean?" Nate's hand clenched to a fist. "he was… kidnapped. Those same people killed Nora to get him." "Oh, I...I see. I-I could scan the neighbourhood." a faint bit of hope lit itself in Nate's eyes. "It's worth a shot." "This way Sir Nate!" Codsworth ran towards one of several houses in a cul de sac down the road. Giant flies shooting stingers, it was disgusting to Nate, but Radiation was proven likely to cause mutations in all wildlife before the war. Nate proved to himself he could still shoot in the vault, he was always handy with semi-autos and pistols alike. He quickly shot the large flies with his new 10mm pistol, one shot enough to completely shred the bug to pieces. All the while Codsworth uses his sawblade to hack them in half. "Nothing here, one more house nearby." Codsworth chimes, Nate nods, the past house or two all having the same things. Quickly sweeping through the house, 2 bloat flies and 3 radroaches lay in pieces on the ground. "Sir… They're gone… actually gone." "I know, Codsworth, thanks for trying." only a hint of distress in Nate's voice. "You could ask the people in the Museum of Freedom." Codsworth offered, a clear attempt at consolation. "There's other people still alive?" "Well, they shot at me a few times, but yes. Would you like me to come with you?" While the thought was comforting to Nate, he felt it would be better to be by himself, even if only a short while. "No, Codsworth, I'll be fine." a short goodbye, and Nate was on his way. If he remembered correctly, he could stop at a red rocket truck stop up ahead.

As Nate crossed the wooden bridge towards the truck stop, he noticed two corpses. One was a Mongrel dog, with what appeared to be a tire iron in it's rib cage, the other was a dead man in a duster, likely died from the multiple bite wounds across his body. _You won't need it anymore_ Nate thought to himself as he took the leather duster from the corpse. As he approached the Red Rocket Truck stop, Nate noticed a small dog in nearby the filling station. The dog seemed different than the mongrel he'd seen earlier, a lot friendlier too. The dog rushed to greet him, licking Nate's face as he pet him. "What's wrong boy? Where's your owner?" the dog only whimpered in response, "Well, you can come with me." The dog licked his hand and barked, to symbolize it's agreement. The ground began to rumble, as mounds of dirt rose up, Mole rats. All of them clearly ready to die in finding their next meal, Nate pulled his pistol while the dog charged.

**???**

_Hurts..._ The girl was covered in blood, some of it not her own. A small bullet hole adorning her side, accompanied with its own large blood trail. She walked out of the shack, only seeing red, a barren landscape with a city in the distance. She quickly looted the pistol, and whatever caps she could find, before leaving. She hardly got far, or so it felt. The shack was still in the distance, she felt tired, _So, So tired_… before she knew it she had collapsed in the sand, the ground close to her turning a light crimson as her vision faded to black.

She'd awoken in a place unfamiliar to her, attempting to get up brought intense pain to the right side of her abdomen. She was stuck in a medical bed, she heard movement to her right, but could only look around groggily, the place was mostly dirty or covered in dust, likely due to lack of use in those areas. She'd looked down to her side to see a bandage across her chest, with a large dark red spot on the side. "You're lucky, Y'know?" She immediately directed her attention to the man in a lab coat not too far away. She felt a bit more aware of her surroundings, the amount of alarm she showed must have been apparent, as the doctor attempted to calm her down. "Hey, hey! Relax, or you'll aggravate your wound!" As he tried to warn her, she felt a sharp pain in her chest again, and settled down. "Wh-who are you?" her voice was raspy, and her throat felt dry. "Well, I am Dr. Johns, and you are?" his voice was that of a learned man, someone who knew their information. "..." She didn't want to talk to him. "Alright then, nameless," he said in a joking tone, "You, are lucky. The bullet missed your lungs and vital organs just barely." he showed her a mediocre drawing of the human body. "How did it happen?" He continued to ask, "Hm?" she wasn't sure exactly what he was referring to. "How did you end up in the middle of the commonwealth, bleeding out?" He asked again, making sure to put emphasis on the last two words. The words seemed to wake her a bit more. As she tried to remember, she remembered her father and quickly jumped up, only to sit back down clutching her wound, it felt like it hurt less, but it was still pretty bad. "I told you" the man said in a scolding tone. "My father… he's still there…" she said absently, "Who?" She proceeded to tell the man of her plight, how the raider came in, and her father dying. "I'm afraid to say… He may already be dead." She knew full well he was right, but it didn't stop the tears that streamed down her cheeks. She quickly jumped off the medical bed, and made an attempt to run out of the "clinic", only to be caught by Dr. John's arm as she tried to run by him. "Damnit kid, I told you to calm down!" he shouted. He grabbed her and dropped her back on the medical bed. "Now I definitely have to change those bandages…" he mumbled under his breath, The girl only cried as the full weight of her father's fate dawned upon her…

The Mole rats weren't much of a problem, only a bullet each, they were considerably larger than pre-war, as Nate looked at them, they had a bit of meat to them, and were probably edible. As he took a quick look around the truck stop, he noticed this place had workbenches galore, as well as a couple of beds. _This could be a good place to live_, he considered it to himself and decided to rest before continuing. As he laid himself in the bed he noted the dirty feeling of the mattress, before succumbing to his fatigue, mentally and physically. He'd had a nightmare, watching his wife die again, his child stolen once more, all in front of him. His wife's corpse lifted it's arm to point at him, accusingly, as if to say, "It's your fault…" Then he saw that face, a balding man, long scar over his left eye. He woke up in a cold sweat, taking time to calm himself and check his pip-boy. The time was 4AM, he wasn't going back to sleep. He'd gathered some supplies for himself, and woke his new canine companion from his little dog house. He spent another hour preparing his items, cleaning his gun, and making sure his stimpacks would be readily available upon injury. He made his journey down the road, heading to the museum of Freedom. Gunshots rang out, along with shouting. He ran forwards seeing people in questionable clothing with questionably effective guns firing at a man in a trilby hat wielding some type of energy weapon. Nate hid behind some sandbags, when these other people, assuredly some type of bandit or raider, noticed him and started shooting at him. It was a bit difficult to see the raiders in the dark morning light, but he figured he could manage.

**Come on! Put on your war paint!** A peculiar song played in the back of Nate's mind

Drawing a deep breath, he rose above the sandbags with his pistol at his side and fired three quick rounds into three raiders. They took the shots, and kept shooting. At this point Nate was fed up, he pushed forward grabbing a raider and disarming him, while holding him as a human shield. "All of you, stand down now, or your buddy ge-" a quick gunshot to his living shields stomach told him everything. He tossed the body at the raiders and pushed for some of the sandbags in front of the museum. "There are more inside, we need your help! Grab that laser musket and help me clear them out!" cried the man in the trilby hat. Nate was still taking fire from the raiders in front of him when he noticed a glowing rifle next to the door. He assumed it was the 'Laser Musket' his new ally mentioned previously. Nate took his time, he picked his shots and aimed for the head when he could, the Raiders fell relatively easily, but they could take quite a few bullets. **One maniac at a time we will take it back...** The dog helped hold the Raiders in place so he could make more shots. When Nate grabbed the energy weapon, he felt a flashback to his military training. How to handle marksman rifles, and energy weapons. As he inspected the weapon, he noticed a crank and small tube for energy cells. He inserted the energy cell and turned the crank, as he did so he felt the weapon hum to life and a large red glow in a chamber of the weapon. Nate aimed it at a nearby raider, who was charging him with a switchblade, a slight bit of pressure on the trigger and the musket shot, the raider dropped to his knees and fell over, a large, bloody scorch mark in his chest. It took some careful moving, but Nate eventually reached the manager's office killing all the raiders outside with his pistol and musket. When he opened the door, he was treated with a small room with five people in it.

A short conversation revealed a suit of power armor on the roof, along with a fusion core and minigun nearby, noises of more raiders outside ended the conversation quickly. Nate looked at the old woman, "I see dogmeat found a good person." she said tiredly "So that's his name?" "yes, he's strong, and loyal too. You have a strong aura around you." "Aura?" "yeah, I can tell from the sight, you have an energy from a different place, or… maybe time?" "I have to go, c'mon Dogmeat!" Dogmeat barked in response, following Nate closely. Using the accessway to the roof, Nate jumped into the power armor.

**You know time crawls on when you're waiting for the song to start**

T-45C, Not bad.. Nate thought to himself, the armor was mostly intact, save for the left arm and right leg being almost broken. He ripped the minigun from Its mount, and stood on the roof, overlooking the raiders hiding behind sandbags, and one or two on the rooftops. Nate jumped from the roof, landing hard on the ground. **So dance alone to the beat of your heart...** He spun up the minigun and screamed, "SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!!" As the sentence finished he began blasting 5mm through the sandbags and into the raiders. As he was mowing down the last of the raiders, he felt heavy thumping from a manhole down the road. A large reptilian creature, with claws the size of Nate's arms, and large curved horns, clawed its way through the asphalt and roared. Dogmeat ran forwards and was back-handed by the large monster. It charged the nearby raiders and tore through them with little to no effort. "Deathclaw! Run!" shouted several raiders, only to be charged down by the very monster behind them. Nate felt his forehead sweat and blood run cold as the deathclaw turned to face him. He readied the minigun in his hands again, "Ya feelin' lucky, punk?" He said aloud, the Deathclaw roared in response. _At least my last words will be cool..._ Nate spun the minigun, chuckling to himself darkly as the deathclaw charged him.

**Hey young blood,** The Deathclaw hit first, slashing Nate with its claws and sending him flying through a pile of sandbags, one look at his vitals monitor told him what he needed, can't take a hit like that again… He used a stimpack and continued charging his minigun to ready it, but the deathclaw was already on him as it raised its claw to attack, the sound of a laser musket sounded and the beast whipped around. Garvey's musket barrel was still smoking. The Deathclaw looked back at Nate, just in time for him to pull the trigger. He began spraying, aiming for It's chest as much as possible, all the bullets pushed the deathclaw back and staggered it as Nate continued firing and walking towards it, all the while shouting a war cry. **Doesn't it feel...** Nate was seeing images of his past life, before the war, flashing before his eyes. First, his first meeting with Nora, and when he proposed to her. When she told him she was pregnant, and when Sean was born. The Deathclaw seemed to be on It's last legs, click click click… **Like o-o-our time is running out?** Nate's minigun had run out of ammo, and the beast was no longer stunned, it grabbed Nate and tossed him again, this time sending him into a ruined car, making a large, power-armor-sized dent in the car. The car engine had ignited, and would likely kill him via explosion if he didn't move. **I'm gonna change you, like a remix...** Nate's leg was definitely broken, he administered a stimpack as the deathclaw reached him again, pulling out his tire iron. Nate and the deathclaw circled each other, slowly. Nate's vitals were low, recovering slowly, but low. The Deathclaw was also close to death, it's left arm and chest bleeding heavily. **Pshvoom!** A straight laser hits the Reptile in it's side, Nate is surprised to see a Preston Garvey still on the balcony of the museum. Preston gives a nod, which Nate reciprocated. The Deathclaw was on its paws and knees, breathing, in pain, but unable to stand from the look of it. Nate looked at his pistol, and walked towards the deathclaw, "Good fight, buddy." **Then I'll raise you, like a phoenix!** The Deathclaw snarled at him. The Deathclaw raised its arm in an instant, Nate shoved his pistol into the overgrown newt's maw, and pulled the trigger. It's arm went slack, and breathing ceased. Nate's armor was mostly broken, except the chest piece being exceptionally close.

She'd been lying in her "medical bed" for several days, The doc was kind enough to give her 2 meals a day, and went on with his medical ramblings and singing to music on the radio by the counter. The doctor was rather empathetic, the girl didn't move much, refused to converse, and overall refused to acknowledge him. Doc John's, as she'd called him once or twice, knew what the girl was going through, he'd lost family and went through the motions she was going through now. Speaking of, it was about time to give her dinner, the sun was beginning to set out the window, the orange and yellow light drifting through the blinds of the "clinic". He'd simply left the tray of food, consisting of some cram, insta-mash and Blamco mac and cheese, on a small table next to the bed. The girl hadn't even tried to leave the bed in the 3 days she'd been there. He got up to leave, giving the girl one more glance before leaving. _She should be fully healed by tomorrow_ The doctor thought to himself. The next morning had arrived, the girl was still awake, a glance at Doc John's pip-boy revealed it was 6AM. She was likely awake through the night. "Ok, I gotta check those bandages again." The girl huffs in response to the Doctor's information. "I know it makes you uncomfortable, but leaving a dirty bandage on an unchecked wound could lead to an infection, making this worse." The girl saw the argument as valid, even if she didn't want to. He lifted the bandages, and made mental notes that she was almost fully healed, he'd used a stim pack to hasten her recovery, _the wound may leave a scar though_, his mental assessment made the same conclusion as the night before, she should be healthy enough to leave. "Ok, you're free to go." He said aloud, an awkward silence hung in the air, then a silent gasp, "R-really?" Her voice was still raspy. "Yeah," he looked back at her, "You're free to go, the injury should be good for the most part, just make sure to drink a lot of water, that Stimpack dehydrates you." The girl nods, opening the front door of the clinic as the sunlight blinds her from the other side. "Where am I?"

Nate walked into the museum to check on the "Minutemen" as Preston had called them, Dogmeat not far behind. They were huddled in a corner, discussing plans on the topic of settlements. A conversation ensued, Preston being astonished at how well Nate fought, questions asked with honest answers from Nate, and a small bag of… bottlecaps? "What is this?" "Caps, what, never seen em before?" Preston responded jokingly, once he realized Nate wasn't laughing, he clarified, "Caps are kinda like pre-war money, but actually useful here." "So it's currency?" "Yeah." This bewildered Nate, however, several bodies in Sanctuary had bottle caps on them, this might be why. "Alright everyone, let's pack up and head to Sanctuary." Momma Murphy, the old woman, beckons Nate to her. "I hear your looking for your son." She says quietly. Nate was never one to enlist help from strangers, "Please, if there's anything you can do…" he started, he hated owing people, but Sean was the only family he had left. "Well… without the sight I can't help much, but even I don't have to tell you where to start. The Big, Green jewel of the Commonwealth, Diamond City." "No way, we've been over this momma Murphy, that junk 'll kill you." Preston reprimands, Nate Nods, "Are you coming with us?" Preston inquires, "Maybe, at some point, it's a long story." "No sweat, just make sure to come on down when you can, would hate to lose a fighter like you." Preston said, holding out his hand, Nate took it, "Thanks for the help in that fight." "No Problem, friend. See ya around." With that, Preston and his group left. Nate was left alone in the museum, with Dogmeat, and his very own thoughts. _What if I don't make it? His own doubts began to cloud his mind. What if I can't find Sean? What do I do when I find him? What if-_ Dogmeat barks at Nate, emerging him from his self-discouraging mind state. For once, in a long time, he felt he had a goal, and he wasn't going to give up on it now. Nate wasn't sure about his whole plan, but he knew where to start, Diamond City.


End file.
